How to Write a Research Paper Conclusion | Techniques & Tips

Introduction

You've conducted a thoroughly rigorous study and have presented your findings in a transparent manner that highlights the importance and novelty of the insights you generated from your data analysis. Now all that's left to do is to write the conclusion for your research paper. Keep in mind, however, that a good conclusion is not just a summary of the research findings, nor should it be treated as an afterthought. When it comes to research paper writing, the conclusion plays an important role in the research dissemination process. As a result, we'll talk about the importance of the conclusion, how to write one, and what considerations to keep in mind for making the conclusion impactful and effective.

What is a conclusion in a research paper?

Many research papers tend to follow a straightforward structure to make their research accessible to readers. A typical research paper includes a problem or thesis statement, a literature review, a research question, a description of the study's methodology with particular focus on data collection and data analysis, an explanation of the findings, and the resulting discussion. Most of the time, researchers can distill what they need to know about a research study from these sections alone. However, it might benefit writers to have these key points in one place for readers to easily access. In this respect, a strong conclusion for a research paper brings the salient points from these sections into greater focus, providing a clear understanding of what readers should take away from the research.

What does a good conclusion section do?

Rather paradoxically, a conclusion serves also as a preview of things to come, namely implications and applications that come from the key findings as well as further investigation that could be pursued. Readers, especially those who are conducting literature reviews for their own research, benefit from being explicitly given a roadmap from current scholarship for future inquiries. Of course, good researchers should be able to make these connections on their own, particularly as it's a required skill when conducting a literature review or generating a problem statement. That said, such a synthesis is a necessary component in a strong conclusion.

Why is a conclusion necessary in a research paper?

At minimum, there is an expectation in papers that adopt an academic tone to come back to the thesis statement after laying out the necessary arguments and highlighting the important evidence supporting the thesis, thus providing closure to a research paper. In that sense, a good conclusion is simply an essential component of a persuasive academic paper. Conversely, a weak conclusion for a research paper (or no conclusion at all) can make the study appear less persuasive. Readers expect a particular style and level of effort in any genre of writing, and can look negatively on a paper that appears rushed or incomplete, even if they themselves don't read the paper word for word.

Substantively, a proper conclusion connects the study's findings to real-world implications, theoretical developments to the existing body of literature, and any unanswered questions that warrant inquiry from other researchers. Good research is conducted to have relevance to other researchers and practitioners who stand to benefit from the dissemination of new scientific knowledge. As a result, the author should use the conclusion section to make the necessary connections between the study itself and to the readers' interests.

How long should a conclusion be?

As necessary as a conclusion is, it is also the last thing that readers look at after distilling the larger paper for the key findings and the methodology informing the study. At this point, the reader's attention span is short, if their focus hasn't already wandered to other aspects of their own research. Therefore, a conclusion section need not be too lengthy, just enough to address the required aspects such as the key points, implications, limitations, and future inquiries. For example, in a typical structure, you will seldom find a conclusion section that has any new insights beyond the required elements described here.

Research paper conclusion example

Let's consider an imaginary research paper that reports on a study that interviewed emergency room staff and observed their movements in the workplace. The fictional study's research question focuses on the difficulties that hospital staff might encounter, whether they acknowledge them in interviews or not. In this study, researchers found that the staff that they interviewed don't advocate for greater emotional care from their co-workers or their workplace, while indications of stress are observed in the same research participants. This creates a sort of contradiction that future research can address, but which could not be explored due to the study's constraints.

"The study outlined in this paper illustrates the different challenges encountered by medical professionals in emergency care contexts, as identified to address our main research question. These challenges can be categorized in terms of, among other dimensions, training, institutional support, and emotional care. The last category of challenges is especially prominent in our observations of emergency room staff who display emotional stress even though they downplay its influence in interviews. This study is limited by time and logistical constraints that prevented researchers from following up on those actions observed in the workplace. As a result, further research is necessary to provide a framework mapping the potential relationships among these challenges, but practitioners should take into consideration the emotional dimensions of emergency care even as medical professionals outwardly de-emphasize work-related stress. Future studies are also warranted in exploring the reasons emergency room staff might opt out of advocating for more emotional support in workplace settings."

This conclusion fulfills the necessary task of providing a concise overview of the main points of the research, namely that there are challenges related to training, institutional support, and emotional care, and that emergency room staff in this study downplay the last set of challenges. This information is already outlined in the abstract and the findings section, and may also be found in the introduction. The limitations and discussion of future research are both key pieces of information that can be emphasized in the conclusion. Finally, the conclusion also addresses the implications of the study, emphasizing that staff training endeavors should focus more on the emotional aspects of providing emergency care. Thus, the conclusion should not introduce any new findings but rather reiterate the overarching story of the research and how it contributes to knowledge and practice.

How do I write a research paper conclusion?

Just like every other step in writing a research paper, there is a defined process needed to write a conclusion that effectively persuades readers. There are a set of key elements that a conclusion should have in order to complete a research paper. In general, a good conclusion should allow researchers to situate the research in the broader context of the field in a way that opens up new research inquiries.

Summary of findings

While writing styles within the academic genre will vary, readers usually expect to find the salient points of a research study in a few key areas: the abstract, the findings section, and the conclusion. The paper's conclusion should summarize the key points of the research that are products of the data analysis and yield useful developments to established scientific knowledge. Although this new knowledge is found in other parts of a strong research paper, the conclusion section provides readers with the necessary confirmation about what they should take away from the research.

One good way to summarize findings is to reduce the research developments down to a theoretical framework or conceptual framework. Whereas quantitative research relies on statistical analysis, most studies in qualitative research can be reduced to a very narrow set of about 3-5 themes, narratives, or aspects identified by the data analysis. If you have conducted a thematic analysis, concisely describe the main aspects of the concept or phenomenon under study. If your paper revolves around a grounded theory approach to data analysis, highlight the relationships between the different aspects being examined. Whatever the methodological approach, it's important to use the conclusion section to summarize the set of themes or elements you have identified in your research.

Implications

The implications of your research should not be understated, particularly if there are useful real-world applications or novel developments to existing theory. A well-written conclusion should explore those implications that are relevant to your research audience. If your targeted research publication focuses on theoretical developments, for example, then the theoretical implications of your research should take priority. Conversely, applied journals or journals that focus on practice welcome implications that are more are relevant to practitioners.

You may also consider how the study's key findings matter to the broader context, not just in your immediate field but in adjacent fields as well. What do new theoretical developments from a study in cultural anthropology hold for researchers in sociology, linguistics, and communication? How does research in physics affect future studies in engineering and chemistry? Any research that involves interdisciplinary discussion has the potential to expand the reading audience which might make a manuscript more attractive to editors and reviewers of a research publication.

Limitations and future research

Scientific research connects previous knowledge identified in the literature review with continuing inquiry that the researcher should identify in a statement of further research. A thorough explanation of any threats to the credibility of a study situates the findings in a proper context so that readers can understand what has and has not been done to generate the analysis that yields the key points argued in the paper.

Keep in mind that limitations and future research can go hand in hand given their significant overlap. Both deal with unanswered questions, which are inevitable in any research study in the face of the wide breadth of scientific knowledge. Also, both illuminate what future inquiries should be pursued by other researchers. However, there are also some key differences between the two. Acknowledgment of limitations explore the weaknesses in a study, which may have to do a narrow selection of research participants or an analytical lens that only considers some parts of theory while overlooking others. On the other hand, future inquiries may also arise from what is learned in the study as well as the shortcomings in how the study was conducted. When a new teaching method proves effective in improving learning outcomes, for example, a future study might explore how teachers can innovate on that method to accommodate their own particular students and learning environments. As a result, any study can suggest pathways for future research by reflecting on how the present study could be further strengthened or expanded.

A study without limitations is hard to come by, given that every methodology bears an implicit set of tradeoffs. Discussion of limitations ultimately demonstrates to the research audience that the authors have reflected critically on their own study and identified the potential flaws in their research that future research might more ably address. Researchers who are more upfront about the weaknesses in their study can be seen as more rigorous and transparent in conducting their research.

Important strategies in writing a conclusion

To write a memorable statement, consider the adage "What? So what? Now what?" Each of these three questions addresses a specific expectation that readers have when reading a research paper, so answering these questions will lay the foundation for a persuasive study. As a result, think of these questions as a useful conclusion outline:

• What? In a conclusion, it's important to explicitly outline what insights the data analysis has produced. By now, the key elements of your research are already established in the findings, but readers expect to see them one more time in the conclusion. This is often out of habit but it also connects cohesively to the other parts of the conclusion.
• So what? A portion of your readers will look at your paper to understand how it connects to their research or practice. The findings should not just be interesting, new scientific knowledge but should have real implications for the immediate and adjacent fields. Without implications, novel research has little value outside pure scientific curiosity.
• Now what? A persuasive research study should encourage future exploration by other researchers, namely the reading audience. Outlining the limitations will highlight what researchers should examine to further codify the theoretical developments in your paper, while pointing out future research opportunities provides a useful pathway for building on your findings.